HOW TO USE PINTEREST

FOR BUSINESS

Pa

ge1

Contents

What Pinterest is & why it matters

How to use Pinterest for marketing

Examples of brands on Pinterest

Conclusion & additional resources

Drive Traffic & Leads to Your Website with Pinterest

Pa

ge2

Pinterest is a social network that allows users to visually share, curate, and

discover new interests by posting, also known as ‘pinning,’ images or videos to

their own or others’ pinboards (i.e. a collection of ‘pins,’ usually with a common

theme). Users can either upload images from their computer or pin things they

find on the web using the Pinterest bookmarklet, Pin It button, or just a URL.

Pa

ge3

One can browse through the items other users have pinned and ‘like,” “repin” or

“comment” on them. As with most other social networks, members are

encouraged to interact with the content by reposting it, sharing others’ pins on

Facebook and Twitter or via email, and even embedding individual pins on their

website or blog.

Using a visual emphasis, the social network is very much focused on the concept

of a person’s lifestyle, enabling you to share your interests and preferences with

others and discover those of like-minded people. As Pinterest put it, this is a

social network meant to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’

they find interesting.”

Pa

ge4

Any business that relies on driving a high-volume of website traffic to increase

sales, should consider joining Pinterest. In fact, early research indicates that

Pinterest is more effective at driving traffic compared to other social media sites,

even Facebook.

In October, the website of Time Inc.’s Real Simple magazine got more

traffic from Pinterest than Facebook. (source)

Eye glass retailer Warbly Parker reports that 11% of their social traffic is

coming from Pinterest compared to 18% from Twitter. (source)

After blogger Kate Bryan started pinning her work, she has had more than

10 million page views and has attracted 16,000 blog subscribers. “My top

10 traffic referring URLs are all Pinterest,” says Kate. (source)

Any business that relies on driving a high-volume of website

traffic to increase sales, should consider joining Pinterest.

Pa

ge5

if you are using the “Pin it” button on your pages, every single one of your pins

will include a link back to the source. However, these are no-follow links and

cannot be used to directly impact your seo strategy. Yet, they still provide

marketing value because they allow pinners to encounter your content and visit

your pages in just one click.

Lastly, Pinterest will soon start contributing to lead generation. so far, Hubspot

has generated a few leads from the new social network and we’ll keep a close

eye on how that number changes.

Pa

ge6

pinterest enables users to log in using their Twitter or facebook profi les,

connectivity that is critical for social media success. These sites can’t get away

with being a silo, and pinterest has recognized that out of the gate.

The site now connects with facebook, according to a recent open Graph

announcement, enabling users to automatically post new pins to their facebook

feed for others to see. This means more eyes from other channels get access to

your pictures. However, remember that you still cannot connect Pinterest to your

facebook business page.

When members are browsing through pins, they will also have the ability to share

posts through facebook, twitter or email. this feature is great to boost social

sharing and get your evangelists to spread the word about your brand.

Pa

ge7

What’s particularly fascinating about Pinterest is that while in beta, it is already

making money. That’s especially surprising for a social networking site. What’s

even more interesting is that the way it’s monetizing is not based on advertising

or subscriptions.

If your website is using an affiliate program, you should take note, because that

is how Pinterest is making its dough: by taking a cut of your sales from pinned

traffic. Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic, explains:

They partnered with a firm called SkimLinks, which automatically scans through

every link posted on the site to see if it goes to a retail site with an affiliate

program. If it finds that kind of link, it secretly adds an affiliate code that ensures

Pinterest will make some cash from sales that derive from that link.

This in of itself might not be bad practice, but the fact that Pinterest hasn’t

disclosed this information outright definitely is. Many bloggers and marketers out

there are omplaining about the lack of communication from Pinterest on its

business model.

Pa

ge8

How to Use Pinterest for Marketing

Get your creative juices flowing with this list of ideas for using Pinterest for marketing.

As with any other social network, Pinterest offers a range of activities you can

initiate to market your company to a new audience. The goal here is to gain

brand recognition, drive traffic to your website and be successful at converting

the new visits into leads. Let’s get your creative juices flowing with this list of ideas

for using Pinterest as part of your social media marketing mix.

Feature Visual Content

Pinterest is a visual social network, so you will need to create a pinboard that

highlights some of your best visual content.

A lot of big brands are taking notice of the power of online visual content for

marketing and the emotions images elicit in readers.

Instagram is one platform that has contributed to this movement and

enabled real businesses to leverage photos as a an inbound marketing

mechanism.

Pa

ge9

The biggest challenge for B2B companies wanting to use Pinterest as a

marketing hannel is a lack of visual content. By nature, many B2B companies

are selling a product or service in an industry that most likely isn’t visual. Here are

some ideas of visual content you can post:

Visual content you already have

Someone at your last company mixer must have grabbed a few photos,

right? If so, make a board to showcase your company’s culture and pin

them. Have executive headshots? Create an “executive management”

board and include a bio for each person.

Strong visuals from blog articles

Start using clear, beautiful images in your blog articles with the point of

pinning them to your pinboards moving forward. You should be using images

in your blog articles anyway! Pin visuals that best highlights your written

content.

Infographics & Data Charts

Infographics are all the rage right now, and they are doing very well on

Pinterest. If you have any industry data that you can visualize, do so before

someone beats you to it.

You can also pin simple data charts that you can build in excel. Make sure to

have a clear headline in the image so people know what they are looking

at!

Pa

ge1

0

E-book and book covers

Has your company released an ebook or a white paper recently? take a

screenshot of it and add it to a board that’s a collection of papers. Do the

same if someone from your eam has authored an industry book. this will help

you establish your thought leadership on Pinterest.

Photos of your customers

Promoting your happy customers is a great way to create a positive

sentiment around your brand. encourage your customers to send you photos

(or take photos of them at your next event.) create a board of their smiling

faces – perhaps using your product or service!

Create a User-Generated Pinboard

By enabling other users to contribute their own pins to your pinboards, you open

up a great opportunity to involve fans and customers in your marketing. Pick out

a few of your top evangelists or customers, and create a board dedicated to

their pins.

Pa

ge1

1

Ask the customer to pin images that showcase the lifestyle they enjoy because

of your brand. This is a great way to leverage customer testimonials in a unique

and visual way. Clothing retailer ModCloth uses this tactic in its “Guest Pinner

Gallery.”

Host a Contest

Several brands have already started launching contests using Pinterest. Before

you jump in, consult Pinterest’s terms of use to make sure the contest you’re

holding doesn’t infringe upon its guidelines.

Hold a contest that asks users to create a pinboard on their own account to

demonstrate what they love about your brand, products, or services. If you’re

that shoe vendor we mentioned before, you might ask customers to create a

pinboard that shows pins of them doing fun and awesome things while wearing

your shoes. Ask them to send you a link to their pinboard so you can evaluate

entrants, and the coolest board wins a prize!

Pa

ge1

2

Even better -- you can also re-pin the top boards to your own Pinterest page

and ask followers to vote on the boards to select the winner. This is exactly what

High Point Market did in its October Pinterest campaign to promote High Point

Market Week, during which it recruited fashion home trendsetters to showcase

their favorite products and trends.

Add the Pin-It Button to Your Website

Make it super easy for website visitors to share your visual content or images on

Pinterest by adding a “Pin It” button to your site. Just like other social media

sharing buttons, this will help to expose your brand to a new audience.

Pa

ge1

3

Add links in the descriptions of your pins

Whenever possible, include links back to your website and landing pages in your

pins to drive traffic back to your website. Keep track of referral traffic and leads

generated from Pinterest. Such insights will inform you about how useful this

platform is in comparison to your other efforts. The screenshot below is an

example of the leads HubSpot has generated through Pinterest in two weeks.

We get these insights thanks to our powerful marketing analytics.

To increase the likelihood of driving more traffic to your website, add a link back

to the page on your website where that image lives for every pin. If you are

uploading a photo instead of pinning something live on your website, select a

link that makes sense and include that in the pin description.

The combined impact from each pin’s clicks and re-pins will give you a big

advantage.

Use Hashtags

Just like Twitter and Google+, Pinterest supports the usage of hashtags. Users can

use hashtags to tag their pins and make their content more search-friendly.

Promoting a new campaign of some sort? \Create a pinboard around it, and

tag it with a hashtag you’re also using on Twitter and Google+ to leverage an

integrated, crosschannel campaign.

Club Monaco leverages its Pinterest account for this very purpose, using the

#cultureclub hashtag and pinboard to promote a section of its website called

Culture Club.

Pa

ge1

4

Examples of Brands on Pinterest

Data from Monetate shows that referral traffic from Pinterest to the websites of

five specialty apparel retailers jumped 389% from July to December 2011. Based

on this data, it’s not surprising that many businesses early adopters have been

lifestyle brands like home goods retailer West Elm and Real Simple Magazine.

However, tech brands like Mashable and The Next Web, as well as design

network Behance have quickly seen the benefits, too. For these brands,

Pinterest’s knack for allowing an interesting, visual way of categorizing

information is likely the draw. So whether your brand is based on fashion or

you’re just trying to show your followers what your brand is all about, Pinterest

offers a great medium to connect with your audience. The brands that have

been most successful aren’t just enabling users to “pin” their content; rather,

they’re getting in on the pinning themselves.

While Pinterest is still very young and its true ROI remains to be seen, here are

seven examples of brands who are already using Pinterest the right way: to

engage fans in a meaningful way that gets them to react, share, and even

convert.

Pa

ge1

5

Chobani

You may wonder why anyone would want to follow a Greek yogurt brand on

Pinterest, but like facebook and Twitter, it’s all about the content you share, not

necessarily what you sell.

What they’re doing right:

Chobani’s pinterest account doesn’t just feature its different yogurt types, but it

also shares recipes of how users can use its products differently. Chobani also

has a featured board called “nothing but good,” the company’s tagline, which

only showcases fun and funny pictures that go along with its brand image;

there’s no yogurt to be seen. in this way, chobani is embracing the main goal of

pinterest -- to focus on the concept of a person’s lifestyle and encouraging users

to share their tastes and interests with others and discover those of like-minded

people. in other words, by promoting the lifestyle its products promote, Chobani

is using its Pinterest account to enable people to learn more about its brand

beyond just its signature products.

Pa

ge1

6

Oreck

Yes, the vacuum cleaner brand. Sure, Oreck may be a more boring, industrial-

type product (not a brand you would typically think of following on a social

media site), but then again, you haven’t seen how clean its floors are.

What They’re Doing Right:

On its Pinterest page, Oreck has taken its industrial cleaning product and made

you forget that a vacuum cleaner brand is behind the pinboards you’re looking

at. For example, Oreck has a board just to feature pictures of beautiful flooring

styles and layouts. Its board “Furry Friends” subtly points out one type of cleaning

job its products help take care of without hitting you over the head with it.

After all, we’re all well aware that the hairy aftermath of your favorite pets isn’t

always the easiest thing to clean.

Pa

ge1

7

Mashable

Mashable is the largest independent news source dedicated to covering digital

culture, social media, and technology. Pinterest currently has a pretty girly vibe,

considering females dominate its user base. But as this tech brand is proving, the

overwhelmingly estrogen-charged demographic of this social network could

change quickly.

What They’re Doing Right:

Mashable will be ahead of the curve for when the male population finally gets

on board with Pinterest. Mashable’s Pinterest account showcases the gadgets

and infographics the news source is well known for reporting on, taking its

immense amount of data and information and making it more visual and

shareable. This proves that if you are a data-driven company, you will surely

have something worthy of being shared on Pinterest.

Pa

ge1

8

Etsy

With more than 50,000 followers, this online shopping website is one of the most

popular on Pinterest.

What They’re Doing Right:

As a retailer of homemade and vintage goods, Etsy creates pinboards that

really take to heart what its brand stands for. They show you how you can make

your own products and how to put their products to work in your daily life, which

again, emphasizes the lifestyle philosophy that Pinterest promotes.

Not sure what to buy your love for Valentine’s Day? Don’t worry, Etsy has all its

pins organized to give you tons of ideas. In other words, giving your customers

new ideas for how they can use your products will give them more reasons and

incentives to buy from you. When using Pinterest, think outside the box of how

you’d typically use social networks to market your products and services.

Pa

ge1

9

Drake University

Drake is one of the few universities jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon, and at

the same time, they’re doing an unbelievably awesome job.

What They’re Doing Right:

Drake University showcases items its student population might actually be

interested in: clothing that matches the school’s colors, room décor perfect for

the dorm, what kinds of

food to make when you run out of “Bulldog Bucks,” study inspirations, fan

experiences, and even a board completely devoted to its bulldog mascot.

Obviously, Drake is following Pinterest’s lifestyle credo, making its boards

specifically about the school and student experience. If you are a potential

student, you can learn everything you need to know about the school with just a

few quick glances. The takeaway here is to make your Pinterest brand page

personal for your fans. Remind them why they love you (or should love you)!

Pa

ge2

0

General Electric

General electric seems to be all about social media lately. They’re rocking it on

instagram, and I shouldn’t have been surprised to fi nd out they’re dominating

pinterest as well.

What They’re Doing Right:

Not only does GE have a board specifically devoted to the “badass machines”

the company works with everyday, but it also has an “archive” board that gives

a visual history of the company’s products through the years.

They also have an amazing board where they’ve posted all the fan photos

taken during their #GeinspiredMe campaign, exemplifying a great use for

pinterest -- leveraging and featuring usergenerated content. All in all, as its

description says, GE is clearly devoted to “#Pinning things that inspire us to build,

power, move and cure the world”.

Pa

ge2

1

Conclusion and Additional Resources

Succeeding on Pinterest is about finding how your products or

services fit into the lifestyles of your target audience.

As you can tell, the trick to succeeding on Pinterest isn’t necessarily about

showing off your products or services directly. It’s about finding creative ways to

show how those products and services fit into the lifestyles of your target

audience. Find ways to do that, and you’ll have what you need to pop on

Pinterest just like the brands we have discussed in this ebook do.

Take the best practices we have shared here and start pinning content that

represents your company identity and attracts visitors back to your website.

Lastly, don’t invest a ton of effort in marketing on Pinterest unless you can

measure the results of your activities. Be smart about the way you prioritize your

marketing initiatives and keep a close eye on the specific benefits this new

social network can provide to your business.

Pa

ge2

2

Brands Ignited is a boutique, fully integrated creative marketing and brand

agency. We partner with companies at all stages to create inspiring and

wickedly clever ways to connect their brand with their target audience. We do

this through stunning creative design, fresh content-driven inbound marketing,

engagement through experiential events and social media marketing, media

strategy and public relations, and of course design and development of cutting-

edge web assets and mobile platforms.

Liked what you read? Why not sign up for a free Inbound Marketing

Assessment?

Get your assessment with an

inbound marketing specialist